Sunday, February 25, 2007

Wiki-Free Blog

What is Conservapedia?Thanks to Technorati, I have a new obsession. There is a new source for information on the Web! Hooray! It’s called Conservapedia. On its Main Page, I found this:

“Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American. On Wikipedia, many of the dates are provided in the anti-Christian ‘C.E.’ instead of ‘A.D.’, which Conservapedia uses. Christianity receives no credit for the great advances and discoveries it inspired, such as those of the Renaissance.”

Here is Conservapedia’s entry for Germany, it its totality, as is: “A country in central Europe that was blamed for both Wolrd Wars and claimed to be the dominate race of mankind.”

Oh, there’s also this: “Like all modern animals, modern kangaroos originated in the Middle East and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah's Ark prior to the Great Flood.”

Baramin?Yeah, I was wondering about that too. From EvoWiki: “According to creationists, a baramin is a ‘created kind’ (from Hebrew: bara, created, and min, kind. This word combination does not make sense syntactically in actual Hebrew). The term appears to trace to 1941 and Frank Lewis Marsh, a Seventh-day Adventist educator, writer, and scientist with a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Nebraska. These are all the organisms that are descended from some specially-created species.”

Italics mine, to indicate anti-religious Wiki snark.

Bald women!Britney Spears.Sinead O’ConnorSigourney Weaver in some ALIEN movie or other.Demi Moore in G.I. JANE.Samantha Mortion, the “Precog” in MINORITY REPORTNatalie Portman in V FOR VENDETTAPersis Khambatta in STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTUREThe robot woman in METROPOLISMaggie McOmie in THX1138Joan of Arc

More fact-ish statements from Conservapedia“Nothing useful has even been built based on the theory of relativity.”

“However, lesbianism is less evil than regular homosexuality, because no penises are involved.”

“Josef Stalin was an atheist communist Russian dictator during World War II. He was defeated by Adolf Hitler, despite Hitler also being an atheist.”

(Remember when Stalin was defeated by Hitler? We never really forget moments like that, do we?)

In its entirety, and as is: "Canada is the second largest country in the world for it's considerable amount of land. It was named Canada because when an explorer came to a Canadian Indian village he asked what this place was called, and they told him ‘Kanada’, which means village in their Indian language. It borders the United States, and most of it's population is in The more southern provinces of Canada."

The Spanish American War? “The war between America and Spain for control of Cuba, the Phillipines and other Spainish colonies, which America, being a Christian nation, won, while Spain, being a Catholic country, lost.”

“Tobacco is a plant used for smoking and medicines. It was discovered by Native Americans and sold to Europeans. It was exported by John Rolfe (husband of Pocahontas). It became know as a Cash Crop.”

A spirited defense of Conservapedia! From the blog of lonewolf:

Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum has started an alternative to Wikipedia called Conservapedia.

Needless to say, the usual "liberal" suspects are having a great deal of (what passes to them as) fun…. They're pointing out "errors" in the encyclopedia, and some of those "errors" may actually be vandalism …and would be refered to at WP as such. Did you really expect anything different?

Of course, those of us with a greater mental age might wonder, "if unthinking 'liberals' say Wikipedia isn't biased, isn't that prima facie evidence that it is indeed biased?" And, we could compare that to the occasional ludicrous statement that the MSM does not have such a bias. …

…

The bottom line is that the "liberal" response to Conservapedia is similar to their response to Rush Limbaugh, the Washington Times, and Fox News, and their push to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. They aren't content with having their biases presented in almost all of the wider media, they simply want it all.

Wikipedia entry on ConservapediaEagle Forum is a conservative organization founded in 1972 and led by Phyllis Schlafly. Primarily focused around social issues, it describes itself as pro-family, although opponents have described it as anti-feminist and socially conservative.

Eagle Forum claims to have a membership around 80,000. It has two youth-oriented programs: the "Teen Eagles" program for children ages 12-17, and the "Eagle Forum Collegians" for conservative-minded college students. Eagle Forum maintains offices in Clayton, Missouri; Alton, Illinois; and Washington, D.C.

Eagle Forum operates "Eagle Forum University", a "continuing education" program that offers conservative-oriented online courses on various topics. Eagle Forum University courses make use of Conservapedia, a nascent wiki-based online encyclopedia founded in reaction to alleged "liberal bias" in Wikipedia.

And where’s Conservapedia when you really need it?From TIME: “In a new documentary, Producer [James] Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn't resurrected --the cornerstone of Christian faith-- and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.”

Leonard DiCaprio and Kate Winslett, reunited for the love story of the ages?

James Cameron entry in Conservapedia in its entirety:“Filmmaker, antichrist.” Kidding!

Nature newsBiologists videotaped a beaver swimming in the Bronx River last week, the first beaver sighted in NYC in 200 years.